So, how many of these major retailers include these features in their shopping baskets?

Amazon does some of this well, providing a clear summary of product and price, links to information about delivery options pricing and T&Cs, as well as clear tools to edit and update the basket:

However, it doesn't provide a mini basketfor quick reference, and to navigate away from the basket you need to click on another section of the site as there is no 'continue shopping' link.

What Amazon does well is to provide a nice clear checkout button, and saves the contents of the basket for 90 days so customers can return later and pick up where they left off.

Next's shopping basket is more basic. It does the job of showing products and prices, as well as providing a 'shop more' link, but it fails on the other points:

While the delivery charges are stated, there is no information on times and dates, payment methods or other T&Cs like privacy and returns policies.

Navigation away from the basket can be confusing as well, despite the 'shop more' link. For example, if I have added items to the basket and select 'flowers and wine' from the navigation bar, I get this message:

HMV provides a better example of how it should be done. Once you have added items, you are then shown a mini basket on each page of the site, which links to the full size one:

The main shopping basket page contains most of the elements listed above; payment methods, T&Cs, navigation away from the basket and controls to update the contents are all there:

There are also some tips on how to use the shopping basket for the uninitiated, though one important omission is information on delivery dates and times, for which you need to enter the checkout.

For a successful online retailer, Tesco's shopping basket is pretty sparse, and lacks information that would be useful to shoppers.

Tesco has only listed the products and price; for delivery charges you need to enter the checkout, though there is a small link at the bottom of the page.

Can you point us at any other retailers that have perfected the art of basket design? Which ones are innovating in this space? Please leave your suggestions below...

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